I thought this was another interesting piece of SoD lore to share, particularly this excerpt:
…he has come to believe mortals have no hope against all the Cosmic forces eager to consume the worlds of the cosmos. If we have any hope against them, then Gregory believes we need to be undead.
Seems like sort of a callback to the vague intentions of the jailer. For as dumb as he was as a villain, it’s interesting to see them setting up what may be some ‘pre-lore’ for the intentions of the Scourge that may align with the Jailer’s purpose for the Helm of Domination.
There’s also some interesting implications regarding the Light as a neutral force, noting that the belief is considered somewhat heretical at the time.
Its certainly interesting to see more characters added to the lore through the Season of Discovery, even if they do not necessarily represent the main timeline. I’m not 100% on where Season of Discovery falls in terms of timelines and canon, but thus far nothing has been wildly different.
A free-willed Death Knight who remains loyal to the Lich King is certainly an interesting twist. If that paves the way for players to eventually have a means by which to enjoy a Scourge storyline, or heck, even a third faction, then that’d be really interesting. Granted SoD hasn’t been that ambitious, but its fun to think of.
Blizz has gone record saying that SoD represents a snapshot of the past. It’s a fun little way to fill in older gaps in the lore and possibly drop hints for what’s in store for retail.
No, Arthas.
Retconned as of whichever Chronicle came out when Legion did.
the Lich King’s intent was to make all of Azeroth undead so that they could kill the old gods and also the burning legion.
In this particular case this is new lore and not a retcon. Thus far I don’t recall any lore in SoD that particularly contradicted established lore and thus I don’t think there has been a retcon.
A friend has shown on Twitter, that this is actually a character from warcraft 3.
After what you’ve seen, what he made you do… how could you serve him still?
In life, my brothers called me “Truthbearer” and I was hailed for my introspection and sage wisdom. As I rediscovered the parts of myself that were lost, my eyes were open, and I began to feel the burden of the knowledge that I was able to glean from the mind of the Lich King while under his domination. There is part of me that will never forgive Arthas for what he did, but I cannot ignore the cold, hard truth.
Ah I see, that does make sense. From Gregory’s perspective it would be the Lich King’s goal and he would have no knowledge of the Jailer, I suppose.
At a more broad level, would this not also be the Jailer’s purpose since he had the Primus (Runecarver) forge the Helm of Domination? I’m just thinking back to his vague death line about us ‘not being prepared for what’s to come’ (or something) I assumed he (The Jailer) was referring to the Void Lords.
I just made that assumption since a lot of the ‘found snapshots’ in SoD seem to be direct allusions to the current day story.
Oh neat! I didn’t realize that. I love when they do callbacks to older/minor characters that exist in the lore. Thanks for sharing!
Not really. They’re just fleshing out certain things that never got fleshed out or were forgotten about. And adding fun little tidbits like the Shadowy Figure that’s been helping us since SoD started, and who may or may not be Xal’atath herself
No, Zovaal was referring to something else. Remember, he wanted to unmake ALL 6 cosmetic realms and remake them in his image. “A cosmos divided is not prepared for what is to come”. That would include the Void. As the void is one of the 6 cosmetic forces. The others being the Light, Fel / Chaos (Twisting Nether), Life, Order / Arcane and Death (Shadowlands)
It was Sargeras who wanted to defeat the Void Lords.
Firim himself describes what he discovered Zovaal trying to do by studying the machinery.
That said the Lich King most likely was shown what Zovaal was aware of and shared it with some of his Death Knights breaking them in order to make them more willing to work with him to turn Azeroth into a Zereth of Undeath.
As for what Zovaal dreads: https://www.wowhead.com/item=189582/firim-in-exile-part-7 suggests that the 7th Architect I.E. the Zereth known as Azeroth is a solution awaiting it’s opportunity. An access point to all Zereths. An undivided Cosmos cannot stand against 7 Zereths under a single person’s control.
Kill Azeroth and the other 6 Zereths awaken. An undivided Cosmos cannot stand against 6 Zereths aligned under 6 separate Cosmic Forces.
If the Lich King were to win he’d have used Azeroth to corrupt every Zereth with Undeath. If Sargeras had won he’d have used Azeroth to bring every Zereth under the Fel. Zovaal outright used Azeroth as a Key in an attempt to bring every Zereth under Zovaal’s control.
Maybe, but it’s possible Zovaal just saw the cosmic war coming to a head, and was tired of the endless fight. Which is to say, maybe there is nothing “outside” of the six forces coming.
To be honest, I get the sense that the First Ones are very much uninterested in the universe we know, and peaced out for good. The fact that they gave the Eternal Ones a set of keys into one of their “debug mode” realms means they’re entrusting the inhabitants of the universe to take care of their own problems. “Hey, if you guys ever mess things up so bad that you need to literally edit the source code of reality… here’s an emergency set of keys.” So… I don’t think they intend to come back, ever.
To an extent, it sounds similar to the Jailer’s motivations, but only really in terms of there being a cosmic threat that must be unified against.
That said, based on my current understanding of the lore (still haven’t finished all of Shadowlands lore), Arthas actually wasn’t doing what the Jailer wanted him to when he was the Lich King, with all three Lich Kings actively defying his will.
Pretty sure this was confirmed in the SL quest “The Jailer’s Grasp”.
If Arthas was actually cooperating, the Azmourne timeline should be a Jailer victory with a reset universe, not a Lich King victory with him on the Frozen Throne.
I think his goal was to recreate creation, but even if it was just to make everything dead, all three Lich Kings resisted his domination and did their own things.
It was during the Kel’thuzad fight I believe where it’s mentioned that the Jailer considered all three lich kings to be failures. Ner’zhul for being usurped, Arthas for going off the rails and doing his own thing and Bolvar actively resisting the evil within the helm
I’m not convinced Zovaal really cared that the Lich Kings resisted him. In the end, Arthas and Ner’zhul caused death, and that’s all that mattered; they thought they were fighting Zovaal, but they accomplished all he needed of them, like puppets who foolishly thought their rebellion amounted to anything.
I guess Bolvar’s resistance was pretty admirable, but on the timescale of an Eternal One, Bolvar broke just as fast as any of the others: instantaneously, to a god’s perception.
